Of the 2,491,000 people who were injured in motor vehicle crashes on the Nation?s highways in 2007, 103,000 (4%) were motorcyclists. Motorcyclists injured in motor vehicle crashes in the last 10 years (1998-2007), have increased by 110 percent, from 49,000 in 1998 to 103,000 in 2007. Data for the past 10 years (1998-2007) were researched to see various trends among motorcyclists injured in motor vehicle crashes. The findings include the following: the proportion of motorcyclists injured in crashes (single-vehicle/multi-vehicle) has remained almost the same (about 50%); more than two-thirds of the motorcyclists injured were in crashes during the months from April through September; the proportion of motorcyclists injured in crashes by day of week (weekday versus weekend) has remained almost the same; based on the number of hours during weekdays and weekends the injury rate was nearly 1.5 times higher during weekends than during weekdays; of the motorcyclists injured, more than 60% were in crashes that occurred during daytime; across all 10 years, about 90% of the motorcyclists injured in crashes were operators and 10% were passengers; the proportion of motorcyclists injured in alcohol-related crashes has remained almost the same (10% in 1998 to 9% in 2007); nearly 85% of motorcyclists injured in crashes each year are male and about 15% are female; and motorcyclists injured in crashes increased among all age groups, with the largest number of injured in each year in the 20-29 age group.
Samenvatting